just another ex-jazz-musician/proto-rapper/Jersey-Irish-poet-actor/print-junkie/film-raptor/beat-hipster-"white Negro"-rhapsodizer/ex-hippie-punk-'60s-radical-organizer's take on all things cultural, political, spiritual & aggrandizing

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

THE PACIFIC

Don't know if you've caught this new HBO series, but it's well worth watching. The acting and direction are pretty impressive. Some scenes are so well acted they brought tears to my eyes. Really nice work from a bunch of relatively unknown young actors.

Some of the writing I could quibble with. I think I've seen some saluting of NCOs, which at least in my time in the service was not the practice or policy and in fact would have been considered out of line. Other little things bothered me for a few seconds, like some expressions and actions and styles that seem more contemporary to me than from those times and those people, but overall I was captivated by how much money and talent obviously went into making this as epic as something on film can get to real war.

I had a brother on Okinawa toward the war's end. He wasn't a Marine or an infantry man, he was in the Navy. But he still saw some pretty horrendous stuff which I've only recently come to appreciate had marked him for the rest of his life, God rest his soul. He told me stories that I always wanted to incorporate into the war movie I wanted to write and maybe even direct someday. But I never got around to that one, and in the intervening years I've seen some of the things he told me actually depicted on screen (like in Clint Eastwood's two relatively recent movies about Iwo Jima).

At any rate, I'm taken with this series and intend to watch all the episodes. One of the greater delights in it is following the characters that are based on true stories of men who actually fought in the Pacific, some of whom are still alive. That seems incredible to me, and I only wish there had been more of this done while more of them were alive. It's a fitting tribute to those still around. And to those who aren't.